Take Time to Appreciate How Far You Have Come

30 Mars 2017 | 05:59

Right now we’re having a course about personal and professional development and in this course we were asked to taking a test called “strength finder” in which the test “determines”* your five biggest strengths and gives you an action plan for how to work with them.

One of my top five were “achiever” and in the description there was this sentence that really hit me; “Achievers tend to move on to the next challenge without acknowledging their successes. Counter this impulse by creating regular opportunities to enjoy your progress and accomplishments.”

For the last couple of weeks I’ve been a little bit frustrated by lack of progress in my work out. The thing is: there has been progress. I have improved. Not only can I lift heavier but run further. I can walk on my toes, I feel more energetic than ever. But as I don’t acknowledge these things as progress, as success, it feels like nothing is happening.

Less than two weeks ago I broke my personal record on the cross trainer by far and spent 45 minutes on cardio (you can read about it here). This would have been impossible only a few months ago. Only a few days later I broke the record again, accomplishing 60 minutes on the cross-trainer. When I started working out again in November, 10 minutes was horrible on a lower resistance. That’s success. That’s basically the definition of success. But I walk around being frustrated with a lack of progress.

And suddenly 45 minutes is no longer success, it’s expected. Suddenly I need to manage those 45 minutes on a higher resistance, suddenly I’m alternating between 22 and 30 (5 minutes of each), getting frustrated when I can’t do the entire thing on 30. Thinking there’s no progress. That I haven’t progressed.

In a way, this test was almost ridiculously important to me, because it helped me see my own behaviour in a new light. It helped me realize that yes, there is progress, yes, I am progressing. I just need to make sure to take the time to reflect upon and appreciate it.

This is where I took the test if anyone’s interested. We got an access code from our teacher so I’m not sure about how it works if you don’t have one. It looks like you might have to buy one.

* Please remember that these sort of tests are not always right and even when they are they don’t test everything. The best tests only get it about 70 percent right.

Under the Weather

23 Mars 2017 | 05:35

I guess the first sign was how incredibly difficult it was to get out of bed yesterday morning, despite absolutely loving mornings. I snoozed for almost an hour and then spent an additional half an hour in bed checking my phone. Or perhaps the first sign was the day before when my body only managed the bear minimum at the gym.

The second sign came an hour later in the form of the first sneeze.

An additional hour later my throat started to hurt a little. Around here I decided to skip today’s cardio and go for a walk instead. It was really nice, I really needed some fresh air and time to think. I walked along my normal route but then apparently decided to see if I could find an answer to the question I’ve had for a while now; “is it possible to walk across the Älvsborgs bridge?” This is a really big bridge in Gothenburg that crosses the river in the city.

The thing is, this bridge is 900 meters long. Not that bad to walk, right? The second thing is that this bridge is around 5 km (3 miles) away from my apartment. So yeah… I was feeling too sick/worn out to do cardio and therefore walked around 11 km (6.8 miles) instead. Great decision! It was a really nice walk, and I got to see a lot of places that I haven’t seen before but it’s safe to say that I felt even more worn out once I got back home.

So then I fell asleep for a couple of hours before making banana ice-cream and sitting down to write this. I still wanted to use these a bit lesser quality photos I took tonight though, just to show you the Canada sweatshirt I always live in when I want to feel cosy! I bought it in Canada back in 2012, and it’s way too big nowadays but I absolutely love it!

(To answer the question: yes you can! And it’s a really nice view from up there!)

((I also found some lasagne that I had forgotten about in my freezer. Just wanted to tell you that because it made me super happy!))

Don't you tell me what you think that I can be

16 Mars 2017 | 05:44

There is something special about beating your own mind. Ever since I was a kid there has been this voice in my head saying ‘this is not good enough, you are not good enough’. Or like most people put it “I’m my own worst enemy”.

And for many years I believed that voice.

This past Tuesday I proved my mind wrong.

This past Tuesday I did 45 min cardio and did not even feel like dying. Why? Because the challenge was not physical. The challenge was that stupid voice who for years had been saying that there isn’t even any use in trying. You can never do 45 minutes cardio. You will never get healthy. You might as well give up.

I don’t think I’ve had as much energy in my life as I had after that cardio workout. I felt invincible. High on adrenalin, strong, proud. It was the best feeling ever. And the voice said “This is nothing. It’s still not enough. You should have gone an hour”.